Rainbow Six Siege: Ember Rise – hands on with Amaru, Goyo and the Kanal rework

The next Rainbow Six Siege Season is nearly upon us, and Operation Ember Rise promises to bring some big changes to Rainbow Six Siege’s meta.

Trusted Reviews has all the info on Year 4 Season 2 of Rainbow Six Siege content, so read on to find out what you can expect when the new operation launches early next month.

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise: release date

A bit of guesswork here, but based on previous releases I feel fairly confident saying that the patch will hit the PC TTS (technical test server) on August 20th, before emerging across all platforms as a unified release three weeks later, on Tuesday, September 10th 2019.

During the three weeks on the TTS, expect changes to come rapidly as Ubisoft take on feedback and use data to see what works and what doesn’t.

This is an iterative process however, as… well, most operators are a bit work in progress when they’re first added to the game. This will be especially the case with the new attacker, as they’re adding a freaking grapple hook to the game, which is going to be a significant change, especially if it lets people get into places like the second story window no one can currently reach in Chalet, above the garage leading into the trophy room.

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise New Operators

We’re getting one new attacker and one new defender. The full reveal has shown that we’ll see a grappling hook, and even an exploding deployable shield. This ticks off the Ember and Rise aspects of the Operation name, at least. But how do they play?

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise New Operators – Attacker: Amaru

Amaru, the Peruvian operator, has a few distinct things going on here that you might dig. In terms of flavour, she’s the first civilian member of team Rainbow, and instead is an archaeologist, although that doesn’t stop this two speed two armour operator from packing the GBA1 light machine gun — shared with IQ — and the Supernova, part of the kit for Hibana and Echo.

Yes, Ember Rise doesn’t add any new weaponry, and here’s why, but being able to use the G8A1 LMG, one of the strongest weapons in the title, on a character with this much mobility is a dream. In terms of sidearms, there’s the choice of the ITA12-S shotgun and SMG11 machine pistol, making sure you always have something capable of breaching hatches and opening lines of sight.

Amaru’s biggest strength is the mobility given to her by her Garra Hook. This will allow her to quickly grapple four times in a match, whether that’s to propel her up a wall, through a window, or even up via a hatch. It’s a type of mobility that feels genuinely out of place in Rainbow Six Siege, but that’s precisely why it’s so valuable.

Grappling up a hatch is simple: you take out the hatch with a shotgun, and then you look on with the Garra and ascend. You’re at your most vulnerable while you’re on the hook, as you don’t have a gun and your approach is loud, so it works best to use Amaru not for a full frontal assault, but to slip in undetected while the firefight rages elsewhere.

The same is true for getting in via windows. There are a few rules about the grapple hook, but basically you can use it to travel upwards or vertically. You lock onto a window, even if it’s barricaded, and then propel yourself towards it. You’re unarmed as you speed towards entry, making you an easy target as you speed towards the enemy. The only real counter is vigilance, or one of Castle’s reenforced barricades, which will make the window unbreachable to Amaru.

Mechanical descriptions aside, right now it feels easy to hit the enemies from several flanks with smart movement, and with the huge magazine of the L8A1 and accurate bursts, you can easily take out most of a team before they notice you.

Amaru feels like a more successful version of last season’s Nokk. Nokk was slow moving and had weak weaponry, but flanking on the quiet was the angle. Amaru turns that on her head: she moves fast and hits hard, but the concept of moving around the enemy to keep them on their toes is present and correct here, even if she does it like a wrecking ball rather than a shadow.

Manage her vulnerability well and pop up in a few unexpected angles, and you’ll make it work, although trap operators like Kapkan and Frost are great counters, turning her speed against her.

In addition to the guns, she also has access to a breaching charge and a claymore, meaning she can use her mobility to open more sightlines or just watch her own flanks.

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise New Operators – Defender: Goyo

Mexican defender Goyo is a defender that excels in any role, using his Volcan deployable shields to turn the map into one giant funnel, bringing enemies into ambush after ambush.

The Volcan Shield looks like any other deployable shield, except that it has a huge gas canister on the back. Shoot this and the shield explodes, coating the area in fire. The fire is identical to Capitao’s firebolt, meaning it’s phenomenal for area denial. This puts him into a similar space to Smoke, except that anyone can set off one of these explosive devices.

Goyo has three of them, meaning that with coordination with your team you can seal up bomb sites and other areas with the devices, and as they also function like regular deployable shields, they also help to protect areas. Unfortunately, because it can be detonated by anyone that shoots the back, if attackers can see the back of the container, they can shoot it and do severe damage to anyone around it. During the playtests I found that it could also be triggered with Maestro’s Evil Eye camera gadget, meaning you can set up a remote trap to slow defenders down.

Because so much of the defenders game in Rainbow Six Siege’s ranked game is centered on time, this has the potential to cost attackers a lot of time to circumvent, keeping the pressure high and force attackers into making mistakes.

It’s a double-edged sword. Because anyone can destroy it, it can be used as a powerful weapon for the attackers to use, particularly if it’s not positioned well.

Goyo doesn’t have to be played as an anchor. As a two speed, two armour operator with a powerful collection of weaponry: he’s got the Vector 45 for roaming, and with his speed can take better advantage of the weapon than Mira, who was the only other operator before this.

He’s also got the TCSG12 shotgun for anchoring the objective, while he also carries the P229 handgun as a sidearm. Factor in a nitro cell for lethality and fragging and impact grenades for making quick rotations.

I’ve been wrong before about the way operators will fit into the meta, but after playing with Goyo he’s probably one of my favourite operators. Getting access to the Vector is phenomenal, and being able to put the shields around the place as you hunt makes him useful both for a deep roam but also for playing a certain area of the map.

All in all, he’s a hit, and i’m eager to see the way he’ll synergise with trap operators after pro players get a chance to take him for a proper spin.

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise Map: Kanal Rework

Kanal is getting touched up, with a full-scale rework. The most noticeable change to the map is that the two buildings have been reworked, with two different rotation paths, one on the eastern and western sides of the building.

In addition, a lot of the external areas have been pulled inside the building and several windows have been taken out, mitigating the map’s huge problem with spawn peaking and runouts. Instead, this will allow players to rotate much easier, both for attackers and defenders, and it makes coordination easier.

Navigation could, understandably, be more complicated with the new set up, but some colour coding on the staircases have now been colour-coded for easier callouts.

There’s a lot more indoor play space, so the fighting should move more inside and less about making a dynamic entry, and there’s been a few new bomb sites put in, too. Bomb can now be played on Supply Room and Kayak, utilising the basement area, although the outside area is now an inside room.

It’s a solid change, and should offer up plenty of new options when the game arrives.

Rainbow Six Siege Ember Rise: Map pool

Ubisoft is tidying up the map pool, with the Ranked pool going down to just 12 maps.

Good news here, Fortress — a map I personally hate — and the Hereford rework are both being removed from the ranked pool, while Kanal will be crashing in after the fix.

Award-winning (and losing) journalist, Jake Tucker created VideoBrains, a series of talks about video games. Jake has held senior positions at Pocket Gamer, Esports Pro and MCV, with bylines at PCGN, …

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